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Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

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Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#611

Post by Wolley »

gnramires wrote: post #193
Wolley wrote: post #109

I've been working on a modular vacuum cleaner robot for around 5 years: https://wolley.se I have done it in my spare time but the dream is to be able to sell it as a kit and work on it full time.

Awesome. I had a similar idea. Maybe we could join forces one day?... I thought about hacking and modding existing robots (I have one at home that has great hardware, but the software is terrible!). Definitely set up a Liberapay account to get support (if you need economic support), although I guess most people would want to see proof of concept first. One thing that would be great is to crowdsource the software, and…

Thanks! Sure, there's a lot of more work to do, especially the software for the "brain". I have mostly focused on the mechanics and electronics since that's the most exciting/new for me.

I will in a couple of months have a skeleton/chassi finished and then the "only" thing left is to write the software to make it autonomous. The idea is to keep it really simple in the beginning and let it run on a Raspberry Pi Zero W. Using a Raspberry Pi opens up the platform for more people and software.

Yes, I would want to have something that works fine before starting to sell components, parts or accepting donations etc.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#612

Post by ed_ »

algas wrote: post #165
ed_ wrote: post #75

We're working on "life support systems" for algae photobioreactors. This includes monitoring the health of the algae, monitoring and controlling the environment to optimise algae growth, providing feedback to users on growth and experiment progress, and uploading data to our own cloud. We're more software than hardware, but without the hardware capability we wouldn't have been able to attempt it. Previously we tried…

That's super cool! I worked last year on an algae bioreactor. I was growing chlorella in plastic bottles in my room, just for the heck of it. That year I also met some people working for a University of Edinburgh startup using algae to consume the tails from whiskey production. Honestly, I really hope that algaes see a wider adoption in consumer and business processes, because they're really fun and fascinating organ…

That sounds really interesting. I'm afraid we're not looking for interns immediately, but the next phase of the project will require more people and square-footage. My email's in my profile, let me know!

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#613

Post by Aromasin »

It's a side income, as the market is way to small to make it a full time thing, but I've designed a digital score card for tabletop wargaming, with relevant tokens for each game (starting with the Warhammer franchises, Bolt Action, BattleTech, Marvel Crisis, Star Wars Legion, Malifaux, and ASOIAF). It's basically a few 7-seg displays, and buttons to tick them up or down, and smaller ones for wound tracking on specific models. The main draw is the different cases depending what army/faction you're playing, which you can paint to match your color scheme. I've yet to scale it beyond my local clubs and the occasional tournament, but feedback thus far has been great. Website on its way, with a Kickstarter in progress so I can hire a designer to help me we the casing. Also selling STLs so people can 3D print their own.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#614

Post by wxce »

pinkmuffinere wrote: post #117

We make stingray resistant booties! Stingray stings are painful and can be dangerous, and the fear of getting stung can take the enjoyment out of the beach. We’ve mainly targeted surfers so far, but they could be useful for any beach-goer. Definitely been dealing with the fact that “hardware is hard”. We had a design we were fairly happy with about two years ago, but have been struggling to get it manufactured since…

Assuming that a wet-suit does not help with such bites, would it be feasible to make a full-body suit from the same material?

I'm a layman (or worse) in this area, and I was wondering if somethings similar could be made for shark bites.

After Googling, I found someone claiming that they have.

How hard would would it be to "combine these two"?

(Both of the above may be stupid questions)

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#615

Post by kataklasm »

gimili wrote: post #164

Not a hardware startup per-se, but we are ex-satellite engineers who out if frustration with available tooling have developed the engineering software every hardware engineer deserves: https://www.valispace.com Also just released the first hardware engineering ai assistant: https://youtu.be/uLEOPpqiUok

I have found this software to be very unintuitive with bad UI/UX, unfortunately. The utility of the software is good amd it fills a vital gap for concurrent engineering, but UI/UX needs to be improved badly.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#616

Post by 3np »

konschubert wrote: post #598
3np wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the idea would be to be support a way to set that HTTP URL via an API, not requiring use of an iOS/Android app? I imagine this might be a case of documentation and support as supposedly the app is already using the API endpoints we'd like to have.

Hmm, I'm not sure what you mean. How would you physically connect to this API without an app and without a backend?

I'm not saying necessarily without a backend. Just being able to "self-service" via API (ie if everything I can do via the app, I can do via curl, it could be interesting).

Self-hostable backend (benefits: privacy; less trust required; I know it'll still be usable even if you shut down your backend in 5y) would of course be great but a separate thing to the above.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#618

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

m00x wrote: post #422
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ESP32-P4 has hardware accelerators for media-encoding, including H.264. Might want to check it out.

Is it out yet? I'm desperately waiting for it to be available.

Since they announced it half a year ago I would have expected engineering samples to be available by now, but there is nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#619

Post by fts_newnorm »

We’re here to make ethically-made tech sexy so it becomes the Newnorm (yup that’s the brand name).

We just launched our first product ‘Sound’ last week: a pair of earbuds, headphones, and speakers in one modular system.

Check it out here newnorm.tech/sound and pre-order it if high-end wireless audio is your cup of tea!

If not, we’ll have many configs and allow Nike-style customization next year so keep an eye on us.

Throw at me your thoughts, questions, concerns, whatever it might be. Everything helps!

Re: Ask HN: Any hardware startups here?

#620

Post by dist-epoch »

TooSmugToFail wrote: post #391

We started in 2017 aiming to build world’s best video headset for drone pilots ("FPV goggles", for those in the know). Based in Europe, where we do all our R&D and MFG. Surviving these last three years was, well, as hard as you can expect. Raising money was a challenge (hardware, in Europe, Central and Eastern Europe). We started scaling MFG just as the COVID started closing down China and crippling supply chains. Fr…

> Raising is still a bitch.

If you are on this side of the fence, you might want to get in touch with Ukraine. They invest in drone startups.

https://sifted.eu/articles/small-dronemakers-ukraine-tech

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